


Not Stellar, But Somehow It's Alright

by gomushroom



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-29
Updated: 2012-12-29
Packaged: 2018-10-12 03:19:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10480914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gomushroom/pseuds/gomushroom
Summary: Set in an AU based on Saigo no Yakusoku (with twist here and there; at the end I probably will only use its story setting, nothing else), featuring slice of office life of Aiba the coffee stall guy, Jun the delivery guy, Sho the assistant of an assistant of an assistant of a lawyer, Nino the creepy security guy, and Ohno the new janitor.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This story has Arashi trying to float through their own (fictional) uninspiring office life; not as bright as one expected for a birthday fic, but I wrote epic angst for birthdays already, and this is definitely not one of those. Of course, above everything else, Happy Birthday, Aiba-chan <3; wishing you the very very best!
> 
> Further Notes/Warnings: This starts simple and then midway stubbornly refuses to stay simple. So, this is a super rare exception. Please know (if you're reading this with this note) EVEN IF THIS CAN STAND ON ITS OWN, I would most possibly edit this again (for errors and everything else) because I'm rushing on things but I really want to post this complication by end of Aiba’s week. ALSO this may also be considered as a not complete fic (yet), I wanted to work more on this but time’s running out and I don’t know how much time I can spare later, especially with obvious I-don't-know-yet-how-this-will-end excuse. Tl;dr. If you can check back in, say, a month or two, maybe, maaaaaybe, this would be something else, something a bit better.

Aiba set his tote bag and thick jacket under the stall; the service people have just finished their morning work and everything was already sparkling clean. As he took his time to scan the lobby just for measure, he took a deep breath in.

It is just another day to weather.

.

"Your coffee is, as usual, disgusting," Nino said, as usual, after his first sip.

The lobby has already filled with people going straight to the elevators that would take them to their respected floor and then sad cubicles.

Aiba smiled absently, pouring another batch of water to the machine. "I know. I wouldn't recommend it either. But there's no other coffee stall within the building. So unless you're planning to walk to konbini down the street, you just have to make do."

Nino gave his obligatory pout, leaned on the stall a bit longer, fussed with the straws, and then bid Aiba a short thank you for the usual discount on his morning coffee.

"Have a good morning to you too, Nino," Aiba replied, a few seconds too late, as Nino already turned to walk away.

.

"You, meet me on my desk after this," Koda-san wrapped the morning meeting and aimed his cool gaze at Sho.

Sho bowed slightly acknowledging. His small presentation wasn't due till the end of the month though, he mused. Packing his documents away, he bowed again to no one in particular and followed Koda-san to his cubicle. Koda-san sat back at his chair, as he gestured Sho to wait while he set aside his laptops and documents.

“You,” he began.

“Yes, Sir.”

“File all these,” Koda-san pointed a box full of documents on his right, “All these are from… Ah, you’ll end up reading them as usual even if I only told you to file and nothing else.”

Sho nodded apologetically.

“That’s all,” he dismissed Sho, already turning his chair to review his own meeting notes. “And, bring me coffee at around 3 PM.”

Sho bowed deeper to hide his wince for the the last part of the instruction. “Yes, Sir.”

.

 

It's not like I'm a total newbie, right?  
This is, I might go out on a limb and say, a child's play for me.  
If they keep assigning these kind of easy tasks, I don't think I can hold it anymore.  
But of course, I am fully aware that I've no reason to complain.  
I mean, I got good money at this, and...  
(YEAH, LET'S TALK ABOUT HAPPIER THINGS.  
LET'S!)

_Sho_ _Sakurai_ is writing a message…

and to meet him almost every day.  
*hearts*  
I was saying.  
You know how it always has been awkward between us.  
But, I think the last time he came over I think I made progress.

_Sho_ _Sakurai_ _is writing a message…_

came over? Hah!!!  
you practically roped him into coming over  
to your sad work corner  
every single time  
WAIT  
hold that thought  
now who's that  
who's that piece of gorgeous ass stoping in front of aiba-chan's stall

_The Ninomiya is writing a message…_

  
Nino! Are you even listening?  
No, reading I mean.  
I was saying.  
Awkward? NO! Progress!

_Sho_ _Sakurai_ _is writing a message…_

  
I SAID HOLD UP  
WHOA NICE MOVE FOR AN OLD MAN  
OR NOT THAT OLD  
SHO-CHAN…

_The Ninomiya is writing a message…_

  
Fine.  
FINE.  
What's with this, what, old man, but not that old.

_Sho_ _Sakurai_ _is writing a message..._

  
SHO-CHAN!  
SHO-CHAN!

_The Ninomiya is writing a message…_

  
What?  
I'm waiting here.  
Now that you get me curious.

_Sho_ _Sakurai_ _is writing a message..._

  
SHO-CHAN!!!

_The Ninomiya is writing a message…_

  
Enough with the suspense, I'm hooked already.  
What?  
WHAT?  
What did you see on those creepy screens of yours?

_Sho_ _Sakurai_ _is writing a message..._

  
my screens are not creepy thank you very much.

_The Ninomiya is writing a message…_

  
FINE.  
So.  
*copy pasting from above*  
What's with this, what, old man, but not that old.

_Sho_ _Sakurai_ _is writing a message..._

  
meet you at elevator 11 west lobby. 2 minutes.

_The Ninomiya is writing a message…_

  
Nino!  
I'm trying to work here.  
I can't just go downstairs and leave this… Well, this.  
Unlike you, I have work to do.

_Sho_ _Sakurai_ _is writing a message..._

  
1 minute 37 seconds.

_The Ninomiya is writing a message…_

I also spy Jun-kun going through security check at the gate just now.

_The Ninomiya is offline_

  
I hate you.

_Sho_ _Sakurai_ _is offline_

  
.

"How can you possibly say a gorgeous piece of ass when he wore a coverall? There's no way in hell your eyes could assess the ass in question and calling it gorgeous," Sho tried to reason loudly. Leaning over on the pillar behind the row of plush visitor sofa, he and Nino watched as Aiba served café-au-lait to a small man, with tufts of, what seems to be, soft hair. Their eyes followed the man as he walked away toward the east exit, holding a cup of hot coffee.

"Oh. _Oh_." Sho nearly moans.

"I know, right? Do not ever question my ability to assess any ass, Sho-chan." Nino patted Sho while making mental note that he should be able to tell the next time that man come into the building.

"I wasn't Oh-ing that man," Sho shoved Nino's hand from his shoulder and pointed his finger to a man walking to Aiba’s stall, "but more like, _Oh_ , look who's coming!"

Nino turned to see Sho's current crush, approaching the stall and instantly regretted the fact of him still being there with Sho at the moment. Jun, the delivery guy with crazy wild perms and impossibly thick eyebrows, or so Nino usually said to tease Sho with, was the sole reason Sho had hearts in his eyes every working day. It didn't mean that he wanted to be around when that happened though.

"Okay then, you can have your ogling time, I'm gonna go back to work…"

"No, you're not," Sho gripped Nino's sleeve tightly, eyes still focused on Jun now greeting Aiba and ordering, quite possibly, his usual double black fix. "You dragged me down here to ogle a stranger's ass, now you need to stay here with me while I ogle, _oh_ , Jun-kun's."

"You're such a creep, Sho-chan," Nino tried to free his sleeve from Sho's tight grip and went back to his 'chambers'. "Let go. I need to go back."

"Meaning, you already got what you want and you're deserting me here because you're a cruel friend like that!"

"More or less so. Yes."

"I—" Sho was distracted enough when across the lobby Jun let out a laugh over something Aiba said that Nino could tug free his sleeve.

"I'm leaving, Sho-chan."

Jun picked the time to slightly bend over the stall and Sho was done. "Yeah. Okay. See you later. Nino. Bye. See you."

Nino already walked off in a huff.

.

“Jun-kun, I think a certain someone is watching you from behind the pillars,” Aiba kindly informed him. Sho wasn’t exactly trying to hide himself; these awkward two have never failed to keep Aiba amused.

Jun did roll his eyes, knowing that Aiba was speaking about none other than Sakurai from 17th floor, sighed and everything else in between He was at the goddamn lobby, how did that relentless sap with big sad eyes got behind the pillars anyway? That man was nothing but trouble.

“Aiba-chan, make that double black to go then. I soon rather not have my butt ogled even longer than necessary.”

Already anticipating the request, Aiba giggled as he slid Jun’s order over, “that’ll be 500 yen.”

.

Nino reviewed the security footage again, this time on the main big screen. Once again, this time with bigger but nonetheless same resolution, the man appeared in the lobby recording, walking slowly toward Aiba’s coffee stall. Pausing the footage when the man turned, with a hot coffee cup on his hand, and a slight smile on his face, Nino took a screencap and set it for bluetooth transfer to his personal phone. He would most possibly get into trouble for transferring security footage material to his personal, but no one checked this kind of stuff anyway, so he might as well do so.

Failing to repress his own giddy giggles, Nino set a new folder for the photo, and made a personal vow to personally take another photo, or loads of them, at this time Nino was not picky, of this intriguing man the next time he got to meet him.

He could have simply accessed the receptionist guest document to check the man’s identity but that would be too easy. Instead, Nino composed a text message to Aiba.

From: The Ninomiya  
To: Aiba-chan the coffee guy  
Subject: attention!  
Attachment: (ohdeargawdthizguywhysohawt.jpg)

yo! you don’t happen to know who this guy is, do you? This is me requesting your help to keep an eye of this hot piece for me, ‘kay. saw him buying coffee before jun-kun arrived this afternoon, you remember this one, right? anyway, just in case i missed him on my screens (which is unlikely but it never hurts to be extra prepared when dealing with hot piece) ring me when he shows up. in exchange i am willing to forgo my usual coffee discount, say, for the next few days. :D

.

Still rolling his eyes, condemning the relentless sap Sakurai-san to the moon and back, Jun went straight to the basement bike parking lot when he passed a nondescript white van, and a man was having trouble with the car keys. “Hello, can I help you with that?”

The man turned to him, offering a weak smile, and nodded. “It’s alright, I got it. I just haven’t got used to use car keys.”

“Got used to use car keys?” Jun asked. “That’s an odd thing to say.”

“I just got my license and sometimes I fumbled with the keys,” the man softly answered. He finally got the right key, pressed them in and opened the driver’s door. “Ah, there you go.”

“Okay then,” Jun chuckled a bit, but then frowned deeper. “Wait. Do I know you? I’m sorry but you look familiar somehow. Have we met somewhere recently?”

The man looked back to Jun, now throwing a curiously intent look. They both stared at each other, trying to place each other’s face within some things, some places in near past.

Jun got it first. “Ah. The karaoke party?”

“Oh, yes,” the man nodded excitedly. “That party. What was it, three months back?”

“Yes,” Jun smiled. “That partly left quite an impression. Ah, it’s Ohno-san, right?”

Ohno nodded. “Yes.”

“Nice to see you again,” Jun offered a hand. Ohno took it but as they shook hand, Jun could tell that Ohno hasn’t got to a full realization about him. “It’s Jun. Matsumoto Jun,” he offered.

“Ah. I’m sorry. I am not good with names.”

“It’s completely fine,” Jun dismissed Ohno’s concern, grinning. “It was one hell of a night.”

“It sure was,” Ohno grinned back, now eyeing Jun’s red and black jacket with a new interest. “Ah, and you work here? In this big building?”

“You can say that,” Jun almost rolled his eyes again, “I do delivery and mostly my dispatches are around this area.”

“That’s nice. I just got a temp contract here,” Ohno said, shifting his stance, “maybe we can catch up again some other time?”

“Yeah,” Jun replied. “Listen, I really need to go now but we definitely should catch up some time later.”

“Alright.”

.

It wasn’t until Jun reached his parked bike, after he heard the white van drove away to the exit behind him, he realized that he forgot to ask Ohno-san what kind of temp work he would be doing in the building. Somehow Jun found it hard to imagine what kind of work a karaoke star like Ohno-san would be doing in a posh office building like this one?

Not that the building had a karaoke bar or some sort; or did it now? And why the hell his mind drifted to Sakurai-san at the word karaoke party? And more importantly, why the hell he hasn’t finished his double black; it’s disgustingly luke warm now. Such a waste of coffee money, he scolded himself, throwing the cup to the bin nearby, then taking his bike keys out of his pocket.

.

No one stopped by at the stall for the rest of the afternoon. The early evening crowd thinned out and Aiba began slowly closing up for the day. The service people would begin their night work soon so it was time to call it a day. After all stored back to the basement room, Aiba set a last scan of the now near empty lobby and gave himself a mental pat on his back for yet another day gone alright.

He grabbed his tote bag and jacket from under the stall, rummaged for his phone. It was a crowded afternoon and he didn’t have time to check his inbox. No missed calls, but one mail, from Nino. As he skimmed the long text and then saw the attachment, Aiba couldn’t help to laugh out loud. And he then remembered:

_“Hello, what can I help you with today?”_

_The usual line for new costumer didn’t seem to impress this new costumer, Aiba originally thought, but then the man in front of him, and such an ugly coverall, he would have to agree with the general opinion, smiled slowly, Aiba’s smile spread even wider. It’s near lunch time and Aiba could give him full attention now that he didn’t have to deal with lots of order in short amount of time._

_“Uhm, what you would recommend? I’ve never been here, and I just think a coffee would be nice.” The man spoke in slowly manner with a soft voice, but Aiba knew that first impression is not the true impression, was he a singer or some thing like that?_

_“We don’t offer much, so it’s all about milk and no milk, I’m afraid.”_

_“Oh, I see. I’ll get the one with milk, then.”_

_“One au lait, then?” Aiba repeated, and seeing the confusion over the man’s face, he added, “that means with milk. I got it, don’t worry.”_

_He went to work, glancing once in a while as the man stood closer to the counter, casually leaning and trying to take a peek of what Aiba’s doing with his coffee. He’s used to closer inspection some of his regulars used to do, not wanting Aiba to mess up their coffee or just wanting to see that their coffee is done right, not that they know how to make coffee if it was up to Aiba’s opinion. But it was kind of cute, the way the man rather excitedly observed him brew coffee, the way the man clutched the counter lightly and tiptoed a bit to get a clearer view._

_It was cute._

_When Aiba slid the order toward him, he noticed the tuffs of hairs, crinkled eyes, thin lips, and soft smile, and, unexpectedly, the dangling loose top button on the man’s coverall. “That’ll be 550 yen, please.”_

_The man gave Aiba an absent blink, then a realizing ‘Ah’, and stumbled to get his money from one of his many coverall pockets._

.

From: Aiba-chan the coffee guy  
To: The Ninomiya  
Subject: Re: attention!

You agree to no more usual coffee discount first, then I’ll consider to ring you when this—yes, have you seen his cute face, whoa—hot piece shows up again.

  
Nino’s reply came in less than a minute.  


  
From: The Ninomiya  
To: Aiba-chan the coffee guy  
Subject: Re: Re: attention!

the f! but i saw him first, you jerk! oh i know what you’re trying to do, I know what you’re trying to do! But game on, nonetheless, game _so_ on, sucker!

ps: turn left and go to west exit instead. Cleaning troop already all over the east. it’s snowing by the way.  
p.p.s: smack sho for me will you. he was utterly mean to me today.

  
.

Aiba turned left instead of hitting the quick reply button. He found Sho awkwardly standing in near the west exit, looking up to the white sky with worry. He walked toward Sho and greeted him with a soft smack in the head.

“Ow, what the—,“ Sho squeaked. “Aiba-chan, not funny!”

“Nino told me to give you one, for being mean today.”

Sho looked around and found a security camera on the far right corner, and wagged his finger at it. “You! Not funny!”

“He has eyes but no ears,” Aiba reminded him. “You’re heading home?”

Sho threw a final threatening gesture to the security camera, before turned to Aiba. “I was going to, but it’s snowing pretty hard.”

“Where’s your umbrella?”

“Jun-kun stole it.”

Aiba snorted. “I don’t even want to know how you both are doing whatever you both are having right now, alright. But I have one, we can just share, if you don’t mind.”

“If it’s fine with you, I wouldn’t say no to that,” Sho grinned at the offer.

“Let’s go then,” Aiba said, gesturing Sho to lead the way out the exit. “You’re going to the station?”

“Yeah, station is fine,” Sho gestured Aiba to lead the way instead and waited.

.

One and a half hour later, Aiba stopped in front of his flat’s door, setting down his dinner and wet umbrella and rummaging his bag for his keys. When the dark and cold room welcomed him, he sat on the genkan floor a little longer after he took his wet shoes off, and exhaled tiredly.

It had been just another day.


End file.
